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Lewis Hamilton is self-isolating in Bahrain, his team Mercedes said in a statement.
Lewis Hamilton is self-isolating in Bahrain, his team Mercedes said in a statement. Photograph: Hamad I Mohammed/AFP/Getty Images
Lewis Hamilton is self-isolating in Bahrain, his team Mercedes said in a statement. Photograph: Hamad I Mohammed/AFP/Getty Images

Hamilton 'devastated' after Covid-19 positive puts rest of his season in doubt

This article is more than 3 years old
  • World champion out of this weekend’s Sakhir Grand Prix
  • Hamilton will be tested before season finale in Abu Dhabi

Lewis Hamilton is “devastated” to miss Sunday’s Sakhir Grand Prix after contracting coronavirus. Hamilton tested positive the day after winning the Bahrain GP and is in isolation. His participation in the final race of the season at Abu Dhabi remains in the balance.

Mercedes said the seven-times world champion had shown mild symptoms on Monday and returned a positive result from a mandatory test. Hamilton had been informed that a “contact prior to his arrival in Bahrain” had already contracted Covid-19. He had been tested three times during the Bahrain GP week, all with negative results.

“I am devastated I won’t be racing this weekend,” he wrote on social media. “Since we started the season in June my team and I have been taking all the precautions we possibly can and following the regulations everywhere we have been in order to stay safe.

“I am gutted not to be able to race but my priority is to follow the protocols and advice to protect others. I am really lucky that I feel OK with only mild symptoms and will do my best to stay fit and healthy.”

Hamilton’s dedication to trying to avoid contracting the virus has been rigorous. At races held in Europe he has stayed on site in his motorhome rather than use hotels. He has not mixed with his family and adopted a small social bubble often consisting almost solely of himself and his physiotherapist, Angela Cullen. Cullen is also in isolation.

Contact with teams members has also been limited, with the team chief, Toto Wolff, noting he and Hamilton would prefer to conduct contract negotiations when they could sit down and do it face to face – a risk neither was willing to take during the season.

However, last week Hamilton posted videos of himself playing tennis with his father, Anthony, and in a car with his father and his friend Daniel Forrest, both of whom were wearing masks while Hamilton was not.

Hamilton will now isolate for 10 days and take a test late into that period. If it is negative F1 sources indicate he will be allowed to travel to Abu Dhabi and will be subject to further testing after arrival. A positive test would rule him out of the season finale on 13 December. F1’s Covid-19 protocols remain very successful. It has conducted approximately 70,000 tests with only 82 positive results.

Mercedes have yet to announce who will replace Hamilton in Sunday’s race. Stoffel Vandoorne, the Mercedes reserve driver is the most likely candidate because he was scheduled to be in Bahrain.

However, in what is a huge opportunity to showcase a driver’s skill in the season’s quickest car, Mercedes could call on George Russell. The 22-year-old Briton drives for Williams but is part of the Mercedes junior driver programme and highly likely to step up to F1.

Romain Grosjean, who escaped from a fireball after his car split in two at the Bahrain Grand Prix, has spoken for the first time about the accident.

The Haas driver hit the trackside barrier at 137mph with an impact measured at 53G. He was in the burning car for 28 seconds before managing to climb out through the flames. Grosjean suffered burns to his hands and is making a good recovery.

The 34-year-old Frenchman said he would have to address the mental effects of the incident. “I think there’s going to be some psychological work to be done, because I really saw death coming,” he said.

He also described his thoughts during the accident. “I don’t know if the word miracle exists or if it can be used, but in any case I would say it wasn’t my time [to die],” he said. “It felt much longer than 28 seconds. I see my visor turning all orange, I see the flames on the left side of the car. I thought about a lot of things, including Niki Lauda, and I thought that it wasn’t possible to end up like that, not now. I couldn’t finish my story in Formula One like that.

“And then, for my children, I told myself that I had to get out. I put my hands in the fire, so I clearly felt it burning on the chassis.”

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Grosjean’s place on Sunday will be taken by the Haas test and reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi, the grandson of Brazil’s double world champion Emerson Fittipaldi. Grosjean, who has been dropped by for the 2021 season, remains hopeful his hands will have healed sufficiently for him to take part in what is likely to be his final F1 race at Abu Dhabi.

“I would say there is a feeling of being happy to be alive, of seeing things differently,” he said, “but also there is the need to get back in the car, if possible in Abu Dhabi, to finish my story with Formula One in a different way.

“It was almost like a second birth. To come out of the flames that day is something that will mark my life forever.”

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